true believer hath by Christ in this life above all other men that have no interest in him by faith and examine thy self hereby what thou hast gained by him If thou hast used the blessings of God and his good creatures soberly and temperately to his glory and not to pamper or cherish any sin to dishonour him thereby and doest return thanks unto God for them with a sincere heart because he is the sole giver of all things that thou injoyest then Christ hath taken away the curse that was upon them and hath made them blessings to thee which thou maist freely use to thy comfort otherwise thou canst finde little comfort in them Also if thou dost truly believe that thy sins were imputed unto Christ and hast an holy assurance hereof by the dayly renuing of thy repentance for thy dayly sins then thou maist be fully perswaded that the guilt of sin which was a burden to thy conscience and did cleave close to thy soul is taken away and that Christ hath nailed it to his crosse whereby thou art freed from the curse of the Law and from the condemnation of sin This consideration will much comfort thee when thou art under the crosse for the evill of punishment that was in thine afflictions is taken away it being part of the curse and thou art but chastised for thy good and not punished for thy hurt Examine thy self yet further what thou hast gained by Christ for if thou canst over-power thy corruptions by the strength of grace and canst leave thy sins before they leave thee and that the remembrance of them is bitter to thy soul and doest dayly strive with a true purpose of heart to newnesse of life then thou hast an evident sign that Christ hath taken away the dominion of sin in thee z Ezek. 36. 25. and hath poured clean water upon thy soul to purifie cleanse thee from all thy filthines Also if thou dost find the fruits of the Spirit of sanctification that thou hast an holy desire to the means of grace and a faithful endeavour to grow stronger in grace that thy heart may be stablished in the truth and thy Faith firm to uphold thee in thy sufferings and tryalls then thou hast gotten great gain and much Advantage by Christ But if thou art perswaded of thine Adoption by Faith in him thou canst not conceive how great thy gain will be for whatsoever a childe can desire of a loving Father thou mayest expect much more from God nothing shall be too dear for thee nothing shall be hurtfull to thee and nothing shall be concealed from thee that may be profitable and advantageous to the salvation of thy soul Let us consider now that our hearts may ruminate well upon it for our great comfort what honour we have by being made the sons of God a 1 Sam. 18. 23. When Sauls servants came to perswade David to be the Kings son in law he gave them this answer Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a Kings son in law seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed How great then is the honour and how highly to be esteemed for a poor wretched captive to be made the Son of the eternall and everliving God to have such a Father to come to in all our necessities such a Refuge in all our distresses such a Protectour against all our enemies and to be heir to such an Inheritance as is incorruptible and eternal which Christ hath reserved for us in heaven Wherefore we should be holy and undefiled in our conversations as becometh the sons of such a Father we should not walk stubbornly before him but in filial fear and reverence obeying his holy will and commands with filial love and submitting to his rod and corrections as a childe ought to submit to his Father If our services are thus performed to God he will then be a tender and a gracious Father to us If we have this Gain by Christ in this life what is the gain of the whole world to it What is all earthly honour to the honour of a true Christian and yet most men covet and desire that gain and that honour and they neglect the true Gain and the true honour of a Christian which is chiefly to be desired b Mat. 16. 26 What is a man profited saith Christ if be shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul If we injoy Christ we have a rich Patrimony we can want no comfort whatsoever shall betide us in soul or in body in goods or good name he will repair all our losses in Adam with his abundant righteousnesse he will also repair all our losses in children servants or estate either in this life c Job 42 10 as he did unto Job or else in the life to come in a more plentifull manner Christ will likewise furnish us with all spiritual abilities to encounter with the enemies of our salvation to stand firmly for the truth and for a good conscience and to endure the tryall of our faith love hope and patience and he will make perfect whatsoever is wanting or imperfect in us d 2 Cor. 12. 9 for his grace is sufficient for us and his strength is made perfect in weaknesse his love and his care of us doth most shine forth when we do most a base and humble our selves and when we do acknowledge our unworthinesse of it In the last place we should Meditate with all thankfulnesse upon the great benefit that we have by the Covenant of grace which Christ hath sealed for us with his blood for we may faithfully believe and comfortably expect that God will perform his condition expressed therein to us though we cannot perfectly perform our conditions to him also that he will purifie and cleanse us from all our filthinesse e Jer. 32. 40. and will put his fear in our hearts that we shall not depart from him Wherefore let not the failings and frailties of the flesh discomfort us nor weaken our faith and confidence in the goodnesse of God to us in Christ for the flesh will rebell against the spirit and the corruptions of the unregenerate part will sometimes breake out upon us to dash and hinder our comfort in this gracious Covenant Therefore Christ hath ordained the two Sacraments to seal this Covenant to our souls for the better confirmation of our Faith f Gal. 3. 26 27. For if we are baptized into Christ by Faith we have put on Christ we are members of his Church and this Covenant is sealed to us g 1 John 1. 7 and the blood of Christ hath cleansed us from all sin If age or sicknesse or any thing else beside sanctifying grace doth keep us from sinning against God this is not the true purging away of sin nor the regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost because the evill concupisence of the flesh and the sinful desires of the minde will remain strong and
THE COMFORT OF THE SOUL Laid down by way of Meditation upon some heads of Christian Religion very profitable for every true Christian Composed and writen by Iohn Anthony of London Doctor of Physick Psal 19. ver 14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be alwayes acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my Redeemer LONDON Printed for G. Dawson and are to be sold by John Mountague at the Sign of the White-Dragon in Duck-Lane 1654. I have perused these Divine Meditations Intituled the Comfort of the Soul and do find them to be so Orthodox and solide pious and profitable that I do approve them well worthy to be Printed and Published JOHN DOVVNAME To the Right Honourable Dame Elizabeth Dygby Baronesse of Geshal in the Kingdom of Ireland Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ HAving nothing of mine own that is worthy your Acceptance to express my Cordiall respects and thankfulnesse for those many favours which I have received from you I have taken some spirituall Receipts out of Gods sacred Dispensatory which I am bold to present or Dedicate to your Honour because they are speciall Cordialls for the spirits and precious Antidotes against the evill of sad times Wherein also you will finde some Balm of Gilead for the cure of all spirituall diseases if it be applyed close to the part that is ill affected with the hand of Faith If these things do relish well with your spirituall Palate then I am confident you will take sometime to ruminate hereupon for I know it hath been your constant course to Meditate something dayly of Divine and heavenly things which did strongly induce me to present these unripe fruits of my labours to you which I gathered in mine old age for mine own use according to my first Intention Though I have thus laboured out of my Calling as I am a Physician yet I am not out of my profession as I am a Christian Now seing this Work is come to Publick view I do humbly desire your favourable construction of the frailties that are in it and that you will be pleased to vindicate it from carping spirits for I did not write it to please their curiosity but to refresh and comfort those that do any way stand in need of spirituall consolation If any thing herein can give you any reasonable satisfaction let God have the honour and glory of his own Work and I shall greatly rejoice therein and shall still remain your much obliged Servant JOHN ANTHONY To the READER COurteous Reader if thou dost live under the Crosse and art sensible of these sad times or if Gods visitation be upon thee which makes thee to sigh and groan under the burden and pressure of thy sorrowes so that thy soul desireth comfort and thy spirits want spirituall refreshing and heavenly consolation then I have written this Treatise for thee which I present to thy view wherein thou shalt finde the true way how to demean thy self under Gods visitation how to bear thy crosse with a contented patience how to make the burden of thy sorrowes more easie or how to be delivered out of them if God seeth it to be most for his glory and best for thy good also how to refresh thy spirits and comfort thy soul in what kinde soever it is afflicted Here also thou shalt finde that many of Gods dear servants have suffered as great afflictions as thou canst and yet God did send them comfort and deliverance but specially what Christ thy Saviour hath suffered for thee and what benefit and comfort thou maist have by it if thou canst draw it to thy self and make a particular application of it to thine own sorrowful condition without which it will yeeld thee but small consolation in thy miseries If thou dost meet with any thing here that will fit thy present condition either for edification or for comfort thou must ruminate well upon it to suck out the spirituall juiâ—e to imprint it in thy minde and to bring it close home to thy heart that it may comfort thy soul and cure thy wounded Spirit David found great comfort when he did Meditate on the Word of God My soul saith he shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatnesse and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull Psal 63. 5 6 lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches And it must needs be so for this is a duty which God requireth and he takes speciall notice of those that do practice it to pour down his blessings upon them as he did upon Isaack who went out dayly into the field to Meditate Gen. 24. 63 64. upon the wonderfull Works of God and then at that very time God sent him a vertuous Wife If the Spirit of God goeth along with thee in thy holy Meditations they cannot but be comfortable to thy soul thou wilt then conceive aright of the secret and hidden things of God and thou wilt see the infinite wisdom ond power of God in all the Creatures his goodnesse and bounty to thee in them and a glympse of the Majesty and glory of the great Creator God Almighty His holy Spirit will also open thy heart to let in whatsoever spirituall good thou reapest by thy pious Meditations For if thou lookest upon the creature and doest not Meditate something of God in it thou dost look upon it in vain and if thou readest or hearest his Word Preached and dost not settle it upon thy affections by ruminating upon it thou canst not edifie thy heart nor comfort thy soul thereby So likewise if thou doest read any thing in this Treatise that is comfortable to poor dejected Spirits it will not comfort thee if it be not well digested in thy heart and applyed to thine own soul If thou art not acquainted with this holy Duty I have given thee some directions how to perform it and if thou doest first practise it upon thy self to meditate upon thine own condition what thou art by nature and what by grace and considerest seriously in thy thoughts what way thou walkest what steps thou treadest and to what end thy wayes do tend thou wilt not onely come to the knowledge of thy self but thou wilt also learn how to Meditate profitably and comfortably upon God thy Creator upon Jesus Christ thy Redeemer and upon the Holy Ghost thy Sanctifier and Comforter I conclude with this saying of an ancient Father Nothing is found more sweet in this life nothing is conceived more comfortable nothing doth so separate the affections from the love of this world nothing doth so fortifie the minde against temptations nothing doth so stir up man and further him to every good work and duty as the grace and benefit of Divine Meditation and heavenly contemplation Thine in the Lord Christ JOHN ANTHONY A Table of these severall Heads contained in this Book MEditation is a Duty
sentence of condemnation upon them within them is conscience gnawâ—ng like the worm that dieth not because it is full of the guilt of sin without them all damned souls are howling and yelling and on every side the whole world is burning What shall a wretched sinner now do that carrieth the guilt of his sins with him to this great day of judgement how can his heart bear these fearfull perplexities What way will he take to escape this dreadfull judgement to go back it is impossible to go forward is intollerable death will slee from him the grave cannot hold him the hills cannot cover him but there he must stand as a miserable forlorn and desperate wretch untill he receive this dolefull and irrecoverable sentence Go ye cursed into everlastingfire the thought of these things cannot be but most terrible Now it concerneth every one to set his heart in an holy frame of fear and reverence and to humble his soul greatly before God when he intendeth to ruminate upon the glorious Majesty of this great Judge or upon this great and terrible day when a most severe account shall be required of every one of whatsoever they have done in this life whether it be good or evill also when they meditate on the fearfull sentence which shall then be pronounced against all offenders and executed upon them to all eternity without any hope of ease or remedy This is not to deter or afright us from an holy pious Meditation of these things though they be every sad and dolefull to naturall men neither is it to drive us into despair as if there were no hope to stand before this Judge with comfort at that day or to avoid that dreadfull sentence of condemnation but it is to stir us up to use all care and diligence to make our peace with God in time and to get a modest and a sober assurance of the pardon of our sins by repentance and that by a true and lively faith we may be united unto Christ our blessed Saviour and Redeemer who shall be then our Judge This consideration must needs comfort us much if we have any clear evidence that we belong unto Christ To this end u Mark 13. Christ foretold his disciples the fearfull manner of his coming to judgement that they should watch and pray that so it might not come suddenly upon them to finde them sleeping in security or unprepared for it and what he said unto them he saith unto all that we should also watch and pray to escape the great danger of that terrible day and to stand with confidence before the throne of the Son of Man at that time When x 2 Pet. 3. 10 11 12. Peter had described with what terrour the Lord would come to judgement he exhorteth us to an holy conversation and to godlinesse looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God and therfore to be diligent that we may be found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse Thus we may meet the day of judgement with comfort if we can earnestly long after it and can heartily desire to meet our Lord Christ when he cometh in the clouds unto judgement which we cannot do untill we find by due examination that we are in the state of grace and that by faith we are invested into the new Covenant and have lived unto God and not unto our selves Wherefore thus saith the son of Sirach y Eccl. 18. 20. Before judgement examine thy self and in the day of visitation thou shalt find mercy And as Paul saith z 1 Cor. 11. 31. If we would judge our selves we should not be judged This trying and judging of our selves must be done in this life for after death there is no faith no repentance and no reformation of life if we die in our sins they will follow us unto judgement and accuse us before the great Judge of heaven and earth and they will cry in the ears of God for the sentence of condemnation to be passed against us which also will presently be put in execution to the utter destruction of our souls and bodies in everlasting burnings How to Meditate comfortably on God IF we desire to make our Meditations on God to be comfortable to our souls we must not look onely upon his greatnesse but also upon his goodnesse for our shallow Meditations cannot reach so far as to draw any true comfort to our selves from the consideration of of his greatnesse and power unlesse we do also look upon his goodnesse to us in Christ which doth open a fountain of true consolation to us not onely in our Meditations of him but also in our sufferings for him So likewise if we look onely upon the justice of God without any relation to his mercies in Christ we shall find little comfort in our Meditations of him for we cannot but quake and tremble at the severity of his justice because we have broken all his commandements and have transgressed his Law and therefore we lye under the curse and penalty of it Also if we look vpon our selves altogether as we are by nature polluted and stained with the guilt of sin both originall and actuall without any relation to the blood of Christ by faith it will make us ashamed to come into the presence of God and afraid to think upon him because he is a sin-revenging God and will not suffer sin to go unpunished But thus we shall have comfort in our Meditation of God if we look upon him in Christ by faith for then we shall see that Christ hath wrought our reconciliation with him by his death that he hath made an atonement for us that he hath satisfâ—ed his justice and the penalty of the Law by the merit of his blood and that he hath taken the guilt of our sins upon himself and hath nailed it to his own crosse a Rom. 3. 24 25 26. and therefore we are justified frâ—ly by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Wherefore as John saith b 1 John 2. 1 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the prepitiation for our sins and not for ours onely but also for the sins of the whole world The same John doth expresse the wonderfull love of God to us in these words c 1 Joh. 4. 10. Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins Now we may receive plenty of spiritual comfort when we meditate on God either in his greatnesse or in his goodnesse in his justice or in his mercy for by this atonement which Christ hath made for us God doth not now look upon us as his enemies or
conceive no hope of forgivness without Christ for Christ onely must procure our pardon and bring us again into the love and favour of God Of Christs Kingly Office GOd did likewise ordain Christ to be a King according as he spake by David a Ps 2. 6 â— I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The Angel also that was sent to the Virgin Mary told her b Luc. 1. 31 32 33. that she should conceive in her womb and bring forth a Son and should call his name Iesus who should be great and should be called the Son of the highest and the Lord God should give unto him the throne of his father David and he should reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdome there should be no end But Christ came not to be a temporal King upon earth but to be a spiritual and heavenly King to over-rule and subdue all the enemies of his Church and to rule and reign in the hearts of all his elect by his Spirit for thus he saith of Pilate c Ioh. 28. 36 My Kingdome is not of this world Notwithstanding he did shew some apparant signs of his regal power and authority when he was upon earth d Mar. 8. 27. for he stilled the boysterous winds and raging seas by his command e Mar. 5. he cast out devils by his own authority f Mat. 28. 6. he triumphed victoriously over death hell and the devil by his resurrection from the dead g Act. 1. 8. and by his glorious ascension up into heaven Christ was a King from eternity h Col. â— 18. and God made him the head of his Church at his ascension in the same nature as he was our Mediatour God and man to preserve and defend it from all adversary power and to rule and govern it by his word and spirit in righteousness and in truth Thus doth Christ still execute his Kingly office by setting up his Kingdome of grace in our hearts by restraining the power of the devil and by giving us a gracious ability to stand against all his temptations and wicked suggestions Also Christ by his regal power in us doth weaken and beat down the power of all our sinful lusts and evil concupisence and of whatsoever rebelleth against his Spirit and he boweth our will by the powerful operation of the holy Ghost to yeild him ready obedience as our King and Governour and so to prepare us by the vertue and power of his grace that at length he may bring us to his eternal Kingdom of glory Christ is i Eze. 7. 22 23 that highest branch of that cedar spoken of by the Prophet who came of that holy line by succession from Adam to Abraham and so to David and then to the Virgin Mary and he was of the same nature with that tree but without sinne him did God crop off by his death and did plant it again at his ascension upon an high mountain and eminent when he made him the head of his Church which became a goodly cedar by the promulgation of his Gospel under whose boughs every true Believer shall have protection from dangers comfort in their tribulations and refreshment for their dejected spirits and sorrowful souls none are exempted from Christ but all fowl of every wing both Jew and Gentile shall dwell in the shadow of the branches of this cedar they shall be comforted and protected k 1 King 19 4 5 6 7. as Elijah was from the rage and fury of Iezebell when he sat under the Iuniper tree they shall be preserved from eminent dangers l Judg. 4. as Deborah was from Siseraes great host m Dan. 6. 22 and as Daniel was from the Lions and as many more of the servants of God have been preserved in their greatest perils Iohn calls this goodly cedar n Rev. 22. 2. the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the Nations for they have a soveraign vertue to heal and cure all the spiritual diseases of our souls if we can rightly apply to our selves by a true faith the promises of the Gospel and the merits of Christ crucified for us We need not then fear the power or malice of our spiritual enemies or the dangers that are incident to us in this life if we can shroud our selves under the shadow of this tree Here is great consolâ—tion for our poor souls against the condemnation of sinne the fierceness of Gods wrath the fear of death and against the devil who hath the power of death because Christ is our King our head and a tree of life to us to comfort us in all our miseries to strengthen us against all the assaults of the devil to cure us of all the wounds that sinne hath made in our souls to shelter us from the wrath of God and to bring us to eternal life Though o Rev. â—8 16 Christ be King of Kings and Lord of Lords and hath the command over all created power and principalities yet when he was in the flesh he did vail the glory of his Deity with our nature and laid aside his regal power and authority p Phil. 3. 7 8 and made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross and the more he suffered the more did his innocency appear and the greater was his honour in the conquest that he got over all his enemies that he might strengthen us in our sufferings with assured hope of a glorious victory over all our spiritual enemies though sometimes we may be foyled by them and also to comfort us in all sadness of spirit and in whatsoever we shall suffer for his Names sake It is no dishonour to us to be made like unto Christ our head though it be as he was in the lowest degree of his humiliation when he was made the scorn of men q 2 Tim. 2. 12. for if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him he hath gone before us in the same steps to make the rugged path of afflictions plain and smooth to us r Jam. 4. 7. If we resist the devil with the shield of faith Christ our King will make him flie from us If we cease not to labour and strive against our sins and corruptions though our natural strength cannot overcome them yet Christ will give us strength of grace in his good time to subdue them for he will not suffer any enemy to overthrow his Kingdome of grace if once it be planted in our hearts but he will keep and defend it from the spoilers and though the devil doth take advantage of our sins and thereby seeketh to root out that spiritual seed of grace which is in us yet he shall never prevail for it is grounded upon an immortal foundation which cannot
and the wombes that never bare and the paps which never gave suck x Luk. 19. 4â— And Christ himself wept for the misery that was to come upon Jerusalem Secondly Christ willeth them to reserve their teares to lament and bewail their sins and the sins of their children because the great and terrible day of the general judgement was coming when every one both high and low great and small young and old must give a particular account to God of what they have done in the flesh either in thought word or deed whether it be good or evill y Isa 2. 19. Hos 10. Luk. 23. 30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us Thus doth Christ direct us how to glorifie God with our teares how to comfort our soul by our mourning and how to be prepared for any common calamity and also how to meet the day of judgewent with comfort and that is by mourning for our sins in time and by making our peace with God by faith in Christ with the teares of true repentance Now take a view of thy teares and see from whence they flow from an humane principle or from a principle of grace if thou canst mourn for the evill of punishment which thou sufferest and canst not mourn for the evill of the sin which thou committest thy teares are not then spent upon the right object or if thou dost weep grieve for thy sins and hast no relation to Christ by faith in thy mourning thou wilt have but little assurance of pardon and thou wilt find but small comfort in thy weeping Also if thou dost lament and sorrow for thy sins and not fully purpose and dost endeavour to reform thy sinfull life thy repentance is not sound and thy sorrow is not unto salvation So likewise if nature can finde teares for the losse of some dear friend or for any other worldly losses and grace can find none to bewail thy self because the light of Gods countenance is clouded from thee or because the Church of God is under afflictions and troubles thou dost then waste thy teares to a wrong end z Ezra 10. 6. Ezra mourned for the transgression of the people a Neh. 1. 4. and Nehemiah mourned for the desolation of Jerusalem b Psal 119. 230. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes saith David because they keep not thy Law These teares proceeded from a Principle of grace wherewith God was well pleased And Christ doth here command us to reserve our teares for general calamities because then God doth call for fasting lamentation and mourning from those especially that are like to partake in such calamities If we can thus regulate our mourning and thus imploy our teares it will make much for the glory of God and for the comfort of our own souls But the consideration of the dreadfull day of judgement should most of all affect our hearts and soules with a godly sorrow for our sins and with an holy and earnest desire to be reconciled unto God by faith in Christ and to have a true assurance of the forgivenesse of them by our repentance that we may then appear before God without any guilt of sin upon our souls and without the clamours and accusations of an evill conscience and then it will be a day of rejoicing to us and not a day of terrour But if our souls are to appear with the pollutions and stains of sin and if our consciences are ready to accuse us and to prefer a bill of indictment against us that day will be most terrible and fearfull to us for when we shall look upon the Judge we shall see nothing in his countenance but terrour and fury and we can expect nothing from him but that dreadfull sentence of go ye cursed into everlasting torments on the contrary if the grace of God hath taught us to deny ungodliness and c Tit. 2. 12. 13. worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world we may then confidently look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Wherefore it concerneth us no less than the salvation of our souls to make up our account while we live here which we must then give unto God even to an idle word because we shall be judged according to our works for after this life is ended there is no more faith to lay hold on Christ no more hope of salvation and no repentance for sin If our account be made up according to our own righteousnesse it will come farre short of that which God requireth and he will not accept it but if we can make it up in the righteousnesse of Christ by faith then whatsoever is wanting in us will be made perfect by his righteousness in the sight of God How pittifull then and miserable will the condition of unregenerate men be at that day Who can make perfect their account seeing they have no interest in Christ And how can they stand before that great and dreadfull Judge seeing he will not then know them Wherefore we should not neglect to make up our account thus with God every day because we know not how soon we are bereaved of time and grace for it and the losse of one day may indanger our salvation Lose no time then and no opportunity for this great work of thy salvation d 2 Pet 1. 10. but redeem the time which thou hast lost by doubling thy future diligence to mak thy calling and election sure What Christ suffered upon the Crosse OUr gracious Redeemer after many a weary step is now brought to Mount Calvary which was without the gates of the City where he must finish the great work of mans Redemption by his death and resurrection for to this end he came down from heaven and assumed our nature and all our iniquities were imputed to him because he was our surety and did undertake to satisfie the justice of God for them all not onely for the Jew but also for the Gentile a Joh 20. â— at 27. Now behold and see how his innocent hands and feet are nailed to his Crosse and how he is mocked and derided in his misery how the barbarous people insult over him how grievously he is tortured and what execrable blasphemies they belch out against him he did now endure the bitternesse of pain and the extremity of cold being naked upon the crosse but above all the anguish of his soul was so great because the fierce wrath and hot displeasure of Almighty God was heavy upon him that he cryed out My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me for then he had little or no sense of his heavenly Fathers love and the bright beames of his Deity were clouded for a time from his humanity If it be so that the eternall Son of God our blessed Redeemer suffered all kinde of shame and ignominy
whereas both his soul and his body ought to be kept clean and undefiled that the holy Ghost may delight to dwell therein and that his heart and affections may be alwayes fit for heavenly contemplations So likewise if his chiefest study and care be to adorn his Profession of godlinesse onely with a specious form and fair outside of purity and holinesse and doth not faithfully strive to shew the power of it in his life and conversation he deludeth his own soul and doth feed it with the meer shadow of consolation and not with the substance of sound comfort which is onely found in the power of godlinesse If these or the like be the meditations of our hearts and if our affections keep at so far a distance from God and from all true goodnesse that we have scarcely any thoughts tending that way it is then no marvell if we misse the comfort which our souls desire when we are in any anguish of Spirit or under the buffetings of Satan and it is no wonder if we are sad and cast down and go mourning all the day long when the times are dangerous and full of troubles and we can hear nothing but complaining in our streets for hereby we have no support for our Faith no Anchor for our hope and no sure rock to rest upon that our souls may be truly comforted in the day of visitation Well may our spirits droup when we are peached with pain or sicknesse with wants troubles or afflictions if we â—rust onely to earthly means and comforts for we can finde nothing in them but vanity and vexation of spirit which will sooner increase our sorrowes than comfort and support us under them Wherefore if we will refresh our soul with true comfott when they are pressed with any sadnesse or sorrow we must fetch our comfort from above our delight must be to Meditate on heavenly things our hearts and affections must be taken off from these things here below and raised up to contemplate those things which concern the Kingdom of Heaven Christ and him crucified must be the subject of our Meditations if we will have any spirituall consolation and the holy Ghost is the onely means to convey this comfort to our hearts from Christ for he doth work all sanctifying graces in us which are as so many pipes wherein this heavenly liquor doth swiftly run down from Christ to us and Faith doth fasten these golden pipes unto Christ who is the Fountain of all true consolation Our repentance can give us no assurance of the Pardon of our sins unlesse Faith doth fasten it unto Christ our hope can give us no comfort in the Promises of God if Faith doth not fasten it unto Christ our patience can give us no comfort in our afflictions and tribulations except Faith doth fasten it unto Christ who hath sanctified all our afflictions by his own sufferings Thus Faith doth make these and all other saving graces effectuall and comfortable to us because it doth bring them home unto Christ Wherefore if thou hast any care of thy soul to comfort it when it is sad and heavy to feed it when it is hungry to refresh it when it is thirsty ruminate well upon these things and if thou hast any holy desire to be weaned from the love of this world and to be familiarly acquainted with God and with his Son Jesus Christ and to injoy the Communion of the holy Ghost to direct thee in the way to eternall happinesse thou must then daily exercise and practise this holy and Religious duty of zealous and devout Meditation in heavenly and spirituall things FINIS
son commit iniquity I will chastise him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men but my mercy shall not depart away from him But God punisheth the sins of the wicked in anger and with much severity for their destruction his own children are reformed by their corrections but the wicked are more hardned in their sins by their punishments This of the Prophet is verified in them n Jer. 5. 3. O Lord thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder than a rock they have refused to return God doth also bestow his mercies and blessings upon them both he doth commonly give more of his temporall blessings to the wicked than he doth to the godly to leave them without excuse and to give them means and ability to glorifie God but they abuse them to sin and uncleannesse to excesse and riot o Eccl. 5. 13 This is that evill which the Preacher did see under the sun namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt But God hath speciall gifts and blessings which he bestoweth onely upon the godly and these are the saving and sanctifying graces of his Spirit which are peculiar onely to them and reserved for them Wherefore now if we seriously ruminate upon the Works of God we shall finde much matter for our instruction and for our spirituall consolation The knowledge of the creature is a ready way to bring us to the knowledge of the Creator and the due observation of the Works of God will bring us to the love of him to the fear and dread of him and to the obedience of his commands We have dayly experience of the Works of Gods Providence and of his goodnesse to us in Christ which should strengthen our faith hope and confidence in him though he doth sometimes bring us into great straits and layeth great tryalls upon us and it should keep us from murmuring and repining though he doth long delay to send us help and comfort in time of need Also it should keep us from carking care and from immoderate seeking of earthly things because God will provide for us and will not suffer us to lack any thing that is good We should therefore wait upon him and wait patiently for his salvation in all our wants and necessities in all our troubles and tribulations and in all straits and distresses which the malice of the devill or wicked men can bring upon us for God can and will by his wise Providence turn that to our good which they intend and purpose for our hurt How should we then delight to meditate on God in all his Works seing p Psal 145. 17. the Lord is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works What comfort can we want in the saddest times seeing God watcheth over us by his Divine Providence for our good what need we fear the malice or power of our spirituall enemies seing we have Gods Protection to keep and defend us from them If we â—ay up these things in our hearts our souls will have the comfort of them in all the sadnesse and sorrowes that we shall meet with in this life Concerning the Creation of Man NOw we come to the Principall piece of Gods Workmanship which he wrought here upon earth and that is the Creation of man in which great Work the three Persons in the sacred Trinity did agree with one consent and gave him such a body as should be capable of immortality and such a soul as should receive the impression of the image of God for thus saith the Lord a Gen. 1. 26 Let us make man in our image after our likenesse Man must needs then be created in innocency in righteousness and true holiness without spot and blemish or any imperfection either in his soul or body There was no perversnes in his wil no folly in his understanding no corruption in his heart for God gave him ability and a willing minde to obey him and a wise and an understanding heart able rightly to know God his Creator and to worship and serve him as he ought to be served Also he did know the nature of all the beasts in the field of all the fowles in the air and the vertue of all herbs and Plants and God made him presently fit for that rule and soveraignty which he gave him over the creatures God did also set his love upon him and crowned him with glory and honour according to the words of the Prophet David b Psal 8. 4 5 6. What is man that thou art mindfull of him or the son of man that thou visitest him For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour Thou maâ—est him to have dominion over the work of thy hands thou hast put all things undâ—r his feet For he was created in his full perfection fit to rule and govern the creatures whom God had made for his use and service As God did shew his wonderfull wisedome and power in the creation of Man because he made him such an excellent creature of the dust of the earth so he now sheweth no lesse power and wisdome in fashioning him in the womb for thus saith holy David c Psal 1 39. 1â— 15. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous are thy Works and that my soul knoweth right well my substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth The Preacher also saith d Eccl. 11. 5 That we know not how the bones do grow in the wombe of her that is with child There are more wonders in man than there are parts and members of his body and every one of them calls for due consideration The eye is but a little member and yet the best oculist cannot finde out all the wonders that are contained in it Who can discover the windings and turnings of the brain how it worketh upon whatsoever it apprehendeth It is troubled with visions and dreams in the night it is at no quiet all the day man hath no command over his own thoughts but they flie swiftly from the East to the West and they bring back to remembrance things that were long past and gone So likewise there are such secret corners in the heart that no man is able to discover what is hidden there God only that formed it knoweth the breadth and deepth of it his all-seeing eye can search into it and nothing that lurketh there can be hid from him Who can declare the wisedome of God in the Creation of man in the faculties and endowments of his soul in the structure of his body and how he is fashioned in the womb we may admire at these things but we cannot comprehend them Now let us bring down our thoughts
Adam and how rebelliously we have sinned against God in the whole course of our lives If this be our condition which is most true as we are in the Staâ—â— of nature what comfort can we then take in all worldly pomp and dignities what contentment is there in all earthly pleasures and delight they are all nothing else but vanity and vexation of spirit We may injoy more of this world than our hearts can desire and yet our soules may starve for want of spiritual food and comfort d Gen. 4. 12 Cain was heir apparent to the whole world and yet he was driven out from the presence of God and became a vagabond upon earth So we may injoy whatsoever the world can afford us and yet God will not look upon us with a gracious aspect and then our condition will be no better than that of Cain We may injoy health wealth peace liberty and all manner of prosperity and yet our souls may be sick they may languish with sadnesse of heart they may be much perplexed and shut up as it were in a dungeon because they are so restrained by the corruptions of our nature that they have no freedome to mount upwards towards heaven It is nothing so uncomfortable to live in perpetuall darknesse and never to see the light of the Sun as it is to have our understandings spiritually darkened and to live without the light of the e Mal. 4. 2 Sun of righteousnesse to have no appearance from him to open the eyes of our understandings to be a guide to our reason to season our hearts with grace and to shew us the way that will bring us to heavenly happinesse This is our condition by nature we are out of the favour of God our life is void of all true comfort and consolation we walk in darknesse f Isa 53. 6 we go astray like silly sheep and follow our own inventions and we have no ability in our selves to return again into the right way Wherefore let our hearts be throughly affected with this our sad condition let our Meditations hereupon draw us to a godly sorrow for our sins which may bring us to true repentance and newnesse of life let this be our chief care and the desire of our soules to regain the grace and favour of God and to be reconciled unto him Let our souls bewail our sins with hearty contrition and true compunction let our teares manifest the grief of our hearts and the truth of our repentance for our transgressions and let us cast our selves down at Gods footstool and humbly acknowledge our offences to him suing earnestly to God by prayer for the pardon and forgivenesse of them through Faith in Christ Also we ought to be humble petitioners to God for a supply of such graces as we want to strengthen â—s against the corruptions of our nature and against all the enemies of our salvation This should be our constant practise every night before we sleep to make our peace with God for the sins of the day past wherein we have failed of our duty and wherein we have dishonoured God that our souls may rest in peace as well as our bodies do rest in quiet So likewise every morning we should acknowledge our thankfulnesse to God for the comforts of the night past and to crave his blessing upon our labours the day following If we continually practise this duty it will keep us from grosse sins and great offences and it will make us take all occasions to renew our Repentance with God for our sins Every fit of pain or of sicknesse that we feel and every crosse or affliction that we suffer calls loud for repentance because it is a fruit of our sins also every blessing and every good thing that God is pleased to bestow upon us cryeth loud for our thankfulnesse because it is bestowed of his own free bounty and goodnesse and not for any merit or desert of ours Though we are miserable vile and wretched in our selves yet God is gracious and mercifull and doth dayly give us occasions to glorifie him and he doth use all means to bring us home again unto himself for he doth not delight in the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and turn unto him neither doth he deal with us according to our sins nor reward us according to our deservings but hath paid a great prize for our redemption out of this miserable condition Concerning the Redemption of Man VVHen God saw man in this sad condition a lamentable spectacle of wofull misery then he took pity upon him a Ezek. 16. 8 and this time of his wretched estate was the time of Gods love to him for soon after his fall God made a gracious promise of Redemption to him b Gen. 3. 15 that the seed of the woman should break the serpents head This promise God did afterwards renew to the Patriarks which was concerning Christ the Lord that should come in his appointed time whom God did plainly reveal to some of the Prophets c Gal. 4 4 5 VVhen the fulnesse of the time was come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that are under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons d 1 John 4 9 10 In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his onely begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the Propitiation for our sins e John â— 18 The onely begotten son of God who is in the bosome of his Father came down from heaven and assumed our nature and took upon himself the guilt of our sins to Redeem us from the curse of the Law from the dominion of sin and Satan and from the power of death f 1 Cor. 7. 23 Christ hath also paid an infinite price for our Redemption even his own most precious blood and the full vialls of Gods wrath were poured out upon him because he did undertake to satisfie the justice of God for our sins for thus saith the Prophet g Isa 53. 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all h Acts 12. 7 8 Now let us gird up our loines with Peter and binde on our sandals i Eph. 6. 15 and let our feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace to be fitted and prepared for our deliverance out of prison for the chains of our sins are taken off and the prison doores are opened to set us at liberty and to redeem our souls from destruction This Work of our Redemption is so great a mystery that the blessed Angels do adore it with much admiration but they cannot comprehend it it was decreed in heaven before the world was and all the three Persons in the holy Trinity had their severall operations
in the effecting of it k 1. John 4 14. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world And Christ himself doth testifie that the Father sent him for this end and purpose l John 5. 36 37 For the works saith he which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I do bear witnesse of me that the Father hath sent me And the Father himself which hath sent me hath born witnesse of me For a voice came from heaven when he was baptized saying m Mat. 3. â— This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased The Son also assumed our nature both soul and body n Heb. 2. 17. For he was like unto us in all things o Heb 4. 15 sin onely excepted he was every way fully qualified to be our Mediator and Redeemer he became our surety and he paid the debt that we did â—ow to the justice of God for our sins by his death and by the price of his blood The holy Ghost also rested upon him at his baptisme p Heb. 1. 9. and anointed him with the oyl of gladnesse above his fellowes q Col. 1. 19 that in him should all fulnesse dwell r John 1. 16. and of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace God hath made him the head of his Church and the holy Ghost doth convey all saving graces from him to all the Members of that mysticall body VVherefore if we are elected unto salvation and do belong unto Christ by the Election of grace the holy Ghost will at some time or other work sanctifying grace in us and will unite us unto Christ by faith that so we may have a modest and sober assurance of our Redemption by him and of our reconcilement into the love and favour of God Why then do we not seek to be ingrafted into Christ for our Redemption Why do we continue still in a voluntary captivity and bondage whereas we may be set at liberty Why are we still exiles and banished from the presence of God whereas we may be brought again into his favour Why do we not seek hs face and the light of his countenance seing all true felicity and happinesse consisteth therein Å¿ Psa 16. 11 and seeing at his right hand are pleasures for evermore and why are we so backward in seeing the kingdom of heaven Alas we have not a true sense of our own miserable slavery we do not feel the burden of our sins we do not see how the devill doth tyrannize over us how he doth beguil us with a seeming pleasure and profit in sin for he will not let us see the greatnesse of the losse that we sustain by it nor the bitternesse of the torments that will follow after it beside those temporall sorrows that it bringeth upon us in this life Thus the devill bringeth us into security and into a dead sleep of sin and doth so stupifie all the faculties of our souls that we have no sense of our spirituall misery and by this means he leadeth us into a dangerous way that tendeth to no other end but to the perdition and destruction of our souls Also we are so delighted with the vanities of this world that we think of no other happinesse than what we do now injoy or if there be any other heaven than this upon earth we will be directed to it by the guidance of our own corrupted will and not by the Spirit of God for the devill would perswade us that nature can finde out a readier and an easier way to heavenly felicity than by Christ Thus we are hindred and kept back by the delusions of the devill by the alluring vanities of the world and by the deceitfulnesse of our own hearts that we cannot come unto Christ for our Redemption and to make our peace with God through faith in him and to have an holy assurance of it by our sound and true repentance Wherefore it doth now plainly appear that we have no power or ability in our selves to come unto Christ we must be taught of God or else we cannot find the way he must draw us or else we cannot come to Christ For thus saith Christ himself t John 6. 44 No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him God doth sometimes draw us unto Christ u Hos 11. 4 as he drew Ephraim with cords of a man with bands of love he will give us a Spirituall light by his Spirit to finde the way he will kindle an holy zeal in our hearts and affections to walk in it and he will inflame our desires that by grace we may come to Christ our Redeemer Gal. 3. 24 Sometimes God doth bring us unto Christ by the Law as our Schoolmaster with a rod in his hand by terrifying us with the threatenings of the Law if that be not sufficient then he will make us feel the smart of his rod by afflictions crosses and tribulations God doth also send his Ministers x 2 Cor 5. 20 as his Ambassadors that by the Preaching of the Gospel they might win us unto Christ and to be reconciled unto God Christ doth also sweetly draw us unto himself as the head draweth the members of the body and as the bridegroom draweth his spouse Thus saith the Spouse to her beloved y Cant. 1. 3 Draw me we will run after thee Christ doth also lovingly invite us to come unto him and to make us the more willing to come he doth allure us by his gracious promises z Mat. 11. 28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are hâ—avy laden and I will give you rest Thus also he saith by his Prophet a Isa 55. 1 2 3 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no mony come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatnesse Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live How could Christ expresse his love more freely to a poor sinfull soul than now he doth what will move us to come unto him if this free tender of grace cannot But to the end we may be quite without excuse and that the love of God may abundantly appear unto us the holy Ghost doth likewise draw us unto Christ by giving us a true sight and sense of our sins by shewing us the means how we may be freed from the guilt and from the condemning power of sin by working faith in us to apply to our selves the merits of Christs blood and his righteousnesse for our justification and by working us into newnesse of life by the sanctification of the Spirit It doth now plainly and evidently appear that our sins have set us at a farre distance from God according to this of the
Prophet b Isa 59. 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have made him hide his face from you that he will not hear For God will not regard us untill the pardon of our sins be sealed to us by faith in the bloud of Christ and we can have no comfort in God nor hope of his grace and favour untill we have some assurance of the remission of our sins by true repentance and turning unto God For thus saith the Prophet c Isa 56. 3 4 5 7 Thâ—ugh we have been strangers to the people of God and as fruitlesse as a dry tree yet if we now kâ—â—p his Sabbaths and choose the things that please him and take hold of his Covenant he will give us a place in his house and an everlasting name that shall not be cut off he will bring us to his holy mountain and make us joyfull in his house of Prayer and all our offerings shall be accepted Though Christ by his death and resurrection hath perfectly wrought our redemption from all our spirituall enemies yet we have not the full vertue and power of it in this life for we are often foiled with the temptations and suggestions of the devill our sins do prevail against us our sinfull lusts and unruly passions do often over-power us d Rom. 7. 19 20 23. and the corruptions of our unregenerate part do war against the Law of our minde and bringeth us captive to the Law of sin so that the good which we would we do not but the evill which we would not that we do it is then no more we that do it but sin that dwelleth in us Wherefore we can feel the power of our redemption but in part so long as we live in the flesh but it will be fully perfected when our corruptible shall put on incorruption and our mortall shall put on immortality and that cannot be untill the generall resurrection at the last day when all the enemies of our salvation shall be subdued For death will seize upon our bodies and will keep them in the prison of the grave untill Christ shall come with power and break open the prison doores by the power of his resurrection and raise them up to immortality and to eternall glory and then our Redemption will be made perfect to us and this e John 6. 54 Christ hath promised and he doth plainly manifest it to us for when he had shewed his disciples some signes and tokens of his second comming which were forerunners of the generall resurrection he said f Luke 21 â— 28. That when they see those things begin to come to passe then they should look up and lift up their heads for their Redemption draweth nigh whereof we are as fully perswaded by faith in this life as if we did already injoy it Wherefore let nothing weaken our faith in our Redemption for we may confidently rest upon it though we have it but in part in this life for Christ will perfect it to us at the last day when he will raise up our bodies out of the dust by his Almighty Power which is the last part of our Redemption Here is matter of great comfort if our hearts do piously ruminate upon the transcendent love of God to us in our Redemption g John 3. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Redemption is freely offered to all yet none can have the assurance of it but such as believe in Christ and belong unto him through the election of Grace these and none but these shall have the benefit of it for they are within the New Covenant h Heb. 9. 15 which Christ hath procured for them by his death these onely shall receive the promise of an eternall inheritance and shall be advanced to an higher degree of felicity and blessednesse than they had in Adam before his fall Adam had but a dimme light of his Redemption yet it was sufficient to ground his faith upon it and the promise of grace was very mystically delivered to him but the Patriarks and Prophets had a clearer evidence of it God hath given us a full demonstration of our Redemption because Christ is come in the flesh and hath finished the whole work of our Salvation by treading down all principalities and powers under his feet and by subduing to us all the enemies of our salvation and because death is our last enemy which will undoubtedly seize upon our bodies we do assuredly believe that by the power of Christs Resurrection who is our head our bodies shall be raised up out of the dust at the last day for Christ hath redeemed our bodies from death as well as our souls from the devill that both in soul and in body we may live and reign with Christ for evermore Wherefore if God hath been so rich in goodnesse to us and if his grace and love hath been so free as to redeem our souls from hell and our bodies from the grave even when we were his enemies and when he saw nothing in us but misery then let us with the Prophet David say thus with our selves i Psal 116 12 13 14 What shall we râ—nder unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us how shal we pay our vowes which we have made to him in our Baptism or at any other time we will take the cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord we will be his servants and will offer to him the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving Thus let our thoughts and the Meditations of our hearts be alwayes upon the love of God to us and not upon the vanities of this world let them be set upon the joyes and happinesse of heaven and not upon earthly transitory pleasures and delights let us study how to live a sanctified life unto God and a blamelesse life to our neighbours and not how to fulfill our own sinfull desires and the evill concupiscence of our flesh otherwise we have received the grace of God in vain and we can have no good assurance of our Redemption by Christ for God bestoweth his grace upon us and hath given us the light of his Spirit that we should walk as in the light and not in darknesse that our conversation should be holy and pure and not corrupted and defiled with uncleannesse but that we should perform holy obedience unto God and serve him with pure affections Now let our hearts and souls devoutly Meditate upon the great Work of our Redemption for it was far greater than the Creation of the whole world God did but say the Word let such a thing be made and it was made he did not disrobe himself of any part of his glory in the creation of any creature but rather his glory wisdom and power was magnified in the making of the least of them
hateful sin was in the sight of God also the devil knew that such was the rigour and strictnesse of the justice of God that he would not spare his own natural Son if he found him clothed with sinful and polluted garments But the devil was much deceived in Christ for though he had sinne up-him yet he had no sinne in him he had no sin of his own but our iniquities were laid upon him because he did stand between the justice of God and us to shelter us from the anger and wrath of God which was our due for all our transgressions and also to suffer whatsoever was due to us by the Law to free us from the curse of the Law but Christ was no longer under the severity of Gods displeasure than until his justice was satisfied our redemption perfectly finished and our atonement made with God Notwithstanding the devil out of meer malice to mankind doth labour to the uttermost of his power to hinder this great work of our salvation which Christ was now about to effect by seeking to destroy our blessed Saviour From hence we may learn to be afraid of sinne because the justice of God will spare none if the guilt of sinne be upon them and if they are not washed and made clean with the blood of Christ by faith but do sleep in their sinne without repentance Also we may observe the cunning and the malice of the devil against the children of God for he will then soonest assault them with his temptations when they are under Gods visitation or when he doth hide the light of his countenance from them because he thinks then to prevail and that they are then least able to resist him whereas God doth usually give his servants most grace when crosses or afflictins are upon them But this is our comfort that the devil can prevail no more against us than he did against our gracious Saviour for Christ will restrain his power in regard of our weakness and he will hide himself no longer from us than until we are truly humbled for our sinnes and that our hearts are clensed by faith and sound repentance Lastly though the devil did what he could against Christ to hinder us of our salvation yet he was not able to compass his wicked design for Christ did confound him and did fully finish his great work which he had undertaken although it were exceeding bitter to his humane nature thus will Christ confound all the enemies that seek the ruin of our souls Now did Christ feel the burden of our sins presse so hard upon him that his very soul was heavy even to the death now did God begin to pour out his wrath upon him and to let loose the principalities and powers of darkness to torment his innocent soul and now did God offer his beloved Son a cup of trembling and wrung out the very dregs which he did willingly drink because his Father gave it him for thus he said unto Peter a Joh. 81. 11. The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it b Luk. 22. 44. His Agony in the garden was but a tast of this cup and yet it was so strong and so bitter to him that his sweat was like great drops of bloud trickling down to the ground so that an Angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him and to comfort him in the assurance of his Fathers love For the sorrow of his heart and the anguish of his soul was so great c Mat. 26. 39. that he prayed three several times to his heavenly Father if it were possible to let that cup passe from him which was that he might in himself expresse unto us a true Passion of humane weakness for our comfort and consolation when our weak flesh fainteth under the pressure of grief or calamity d Mat. 26. 41 for the spirit may be willing and ready to suffer though the flesh be weak There were many bitter ingredients in this cup of our Saviours passion which he was to drink for our sakes for every scorn and contumely that was put upon him every blasphemous word that was spoken against him every stripe of the whip every thorne that pierced his tender temples and every nail that fastned him to his Crosss were exceeding sharp and bitter to him because it was for sinne and they were all venomed with the malice of the devil and the wrath of God went along with him in all his Passion until he had suffered so much as the justice of God required but chiefly the fear of death did most perplex his humane nature by reason of the sting that was now in it wherby he did manifest the truth of his humanity which was not exempted from humane passions though it was alwayes free from the infection of sinne If Christ had not dyed for us we had reaped no benefit by his life for our justification the lothsome diseases of our souls had not been cured but e Eph. 2. 1. we had still remained dead in our trespasses and sinnes for nothing could kill the power of sinne in us but the death of the eternal Son of God and nothing could quicken us up in a spiritual life but his resurrection from the dead and nothing moved him to dye for us but his tender love and compassion to us When Christ was in the flesh he had a share in all our miseries even from his infancy and when he was to dye he suffered more than any heart is able to conceive whereby he hath sweetned the bitterness of our miseries and hath opened a ready way for us to find comfort in our sufferings if we can make our title good in him by a true faith God doth keep this cup in his own hand to give to whom he pleaseth f Ps 75. â— and if he giveth it to us that are his servants that we must drink of this bitter cup of affliction and sorrow though the wine be red and it be full of mixture yet we shall not wring out the dregs thereof and drink them for they are reserved for the wicked Christ our blessed Redeemer hath drunk the dregs of this cup for us and hath made it a cup of salvation and a cup of consolation healthful and profitable for us in the end though it be bitter and uncomfortable in the tast We need not then be dejected in our spirits when we are under the Cross if we consider that our sufferings come from the hand of the loving and tender Father g Ier. 10. 24 to correct us with judgement not in his anger to refine the dross and to purge away the corruption that is in us but not to consume and destroy us If we conceive through humane frailty or through the weaknesse of our faith that this cup is to strong for us and that we are not able to bear it we may pray and that earnestly and often to have it removed and to passe
further to what height of impiety the spiteful and malicious Jews are brought u Mat. 27 24. Pilate washed his hands in water before he gave sentence against Christ in token as he thought that he was innocent of the guilt of his blood because he knew him to be a just person but the Jewes drowned themselves in the blood of that immaculate Lamb and said Let his blood be on us and on our children O what a burden is innocent blood to the conscience What fearful judgements did they pull down upon themselves and upon their posterity hereby David found this to be true when he did unjustly shed the innocent blood of Vriah â— 2 Sam. 11. for x Psal 51. this fact of his cost him many a tear before he coul get assurance of pardon for it How severe was the punishment that God laid upon Cain for killing his brother Abâ—l and yet these wretched Jewes did wish that the most precious blood of Christ the eternall Son of God might lye upon them and upon their children to which God in justice did say Amen That blood which was the blood of the New y Heb 9 20 Covenant and sealeth redemption to all that do apply it to themselves by faith is made a most heavy curse to the Jewes for their unbelief and it doth rest upon their posterity even to this day because they did despise it and most maliciously trampled it under their feet for they rejected him and would not believe in him for their salvation but preferred a murtherer before him which made their sin the more odious in Gods eye Wherefore let the thoughts and the Meditations of our hearts be how to moderate and suppresse our rash and raging passions that they break not out to wicked wishes or impious execrations to our own hurt or to the hurt of another but specially concerning blood lest God that heareth in heaven should say Amen to it for then the guilt of that sin will lye heavy upon us and the evill which we have unadvisedly wished will be grievous to them except we do speedily repent that God in mercy may forgive us We should therefore set a continuall watch before our lips that we speak nothing against themselves or to the hurt of another for God in his justice may bring the same evil upon us which we have wished either to our selves or to others but we ought to accustome our selves to blessing and not to cursing to wholesome speeches that may tend to edification and not to mischievous words that tend to destruction and then God in mercy will say Amen to it Now observe and mark what barbarous cruelly the Gentiles did use against our dear Saviour for as soon as he was condemed z Mar. 15. 15. they scourged him without limitation of stripes so that this of the Psalmists was verified in Christ a Psal 129. 3. The plowers plowed upon my back they made long their furrows whereas the Jews were limited by the Law of God to fourty stripes When Christ was thus b Deut. 25 3 cruelly scourged then Pilate delivered him to be crucified c Mat. 27. and then the savage Gentiles did mock and deride him they did spit upon him they crowned him with thornes and smote him on the head with a read and then they led him away to be crucified This was a dolefull spectacle and able to make a deep impression of tender compassion in any Christian heart to see a righteous man thus miserably tortured but much more to see the onely begotten Son of God thus dishonoured and thus shamefully used with as much disgrace and shame as they could devise But such inhumanity did reign in their murthering mindes and such cruell deeds were acted with their bloody hands that nothing could swage their malice and cruelty and nothing could mollifie their stony hearts or melt them into compassionate pitty because they were given up to a reprobate minde But let our hearts be touched with a true sense of our Saviours sufferings and with a godly sorrow and compunction for our sins when we ruminate and ponder in our thoughts how unjustly our blessed Redeemer was condemned and how cruelly he was used for our sakes for Gods controuersie was against us and not against his dear Son But because he of his tender love and compassion stept in between Gods fierce wrath and us which he knew was too heavy for us to bear and took upon himself the guilt of our sins and because the desire of his soul was to reconcile us to God his Father he was willing that so much of Gods severe wrath as in justice was due to us for our transgressions should light upon himself which he did meekly undergo to free us from it If we are thus affected when we do seriously think upon the passion of our Saviour Christ it will make us hate our sins with a perfect hatred it will pull down our proud and haughty spirits it will make us thankfully to acknowledge our unworthinesse of so great love from him and it will bind us in a firm bond of love and obedience to him then Christ will commiserate and pitty us in our sorrowes and will comfort us in our sad condition But alas we take no pleasure in such dolefull Meditations we are not feelingly affected with our Saviours tedious and bitter passion and therefore we cannot bring it home to our selves by faith neither can we raise up the affections of our hearts hereunto because we are not perswaded that he suffered more than his humane nature could have born if it had not been supported by his Deity neither do we faithfully believe that what he suffered was for our redemption as it was for all the elect of God and therefore we can draw no spirituall comfort from thence to our souls These sad contemplations are not sweet to our taste they are not delightfull to our corrupted nature nor pleasing to our carnall desires for we had rather go to the house of feasting than to the house of mourning our love to Christ is not so firm and our faith in him is not so strong as to make our mindes constant in these heavenly Meditations which are most profitable for the good of our souls If we find such obduracy in our hearts so little grace in our affections and that our unregenerate part is so prevailing in us that we can take no pleasure to Meditate on the bitter passion of Christ as if he were not to be pitied we may justly condemn our selves of too much ingratitude for his great love to us and we cannot then expect any compassion from him in our afflictions and miseries If we look upon a Kings onely Son and see him suffer all kind of rebuke and shame by rebells and traitors and all kinde of torturings and tormentings for no offence given shall we not pity his miserable condition And shall we not think upon his miseries with sad
blasphemous words and cruell torments upon the crosse even to the pouring out of his very heart blood to purge and cleanse us from the guilt and from the filth of all our sins and that he suffered whatsoever the malice and power of the devill could inflict upon him and also that for the time his Divine nature did refuse to minister comfort to his humanity in these his bitter torments what thankfulnesse then do we ow to our dear Saviour for his wonderfull love to us What can be too dear for him that did account nothing too dear for us what duty what reverence and fear do we ow unto him who hath paid so great a price for our redemption Our best expressions of love and duty are no way answerable to that which Christ hath deserved and which we are Sound to perform unto him yet if they come from a willing minde and from a sincere heart Christ our Saviour will accept them and out of his fulnesse will supply what is wanting in us and God will be well pleased with it for his sake Here is much matter of heavenly comfort for us if our hearts can devoutly Meditate upon it and receive it Our life may be full of misery and our hearts full of sadnesse and perplexity our faith may be so weak that we can have no apprehension of the love and favour of God and our spirits may be so cast down that we cannot raise them up towards heaven we may be pressed with troubles crosses and sorrowes beyond our strength and the light of Gods countenance may be so eclipsed that we can see no token of his grace and favour to sweeten the bitternesse of our sufferings and to support us under the pressure of them but we are ready to faint and to cast off all hope of relief and comfort b Psal 42. 11. but for all this we need not fear our souls need not be disquieted within us for if we wait on God he will be our present help he will be our God and he will not forsake us The brightnesse of his countenance may be darkened for a few hours as it was with the Sun at this very same time c Mal. 4. 2. but the Sun of righteousnesse will again appear to us with healing in his wings then we shal see the salvation of the Lord if we can look up with the eye of faith to our sweet Saviour who was brought to a lower degree of spirituall desertion in the apprehension of his humane nature thn we can be and yet he found a return of the gracious aspect of his Fathers countenance toward him whereby he hath sanctified and sweetned whatsoever can betide us to sink our spirits or to shake our faith and confidence in God If our ear is spiritually bored to hear those dolefull and lamentable words which our Saviour uttered upon the crosse when he was ready to yeild up his Spirit to God his Father and yet apply them to our selves by faith we may then draw vertue and power from them to strengthen our faith and to support our hope in the assurance of his love that he will not bring us to so low a degree of spiritual desertion because our weaknesse will not bear so great a tryall but will make us to hold out to the end by the Almighty power of his eternall Spirit Now learn O my sorrowful soul so to imprint the crucifying of thy dear Saviour in thy heart by faith that thou maist draw grace and vertue from thence to crucifie all thy corruptions and the evill concupiscence of thy flesh that thine affections may not be carried after worldly vanities that thine eyes may not delight to gaze upon obscene spectacles that thine eares may be dull to unsavory speeches but swift to hear words that tend to edification and that thy tongue may have no motion to utter any thing that is dishonourable to God or hurtfull to thy neighbour d Gal. 6. 14. Thus by the power of Christ crucified the world shall be crucified to thee and thou unto the world if thou dost truly believe that he was crucified for thee because it will dull the edge of thine affections to all earthly things it will work in thee an hatred and detestation of all sinfull pleasures and thou wilt dayly labour and e Col. 3. 9. Eph. 4. 22. strive to mortifie the old man of sin that hath had his habitation in thy bosome above these threescore years In thy first creation thou wert a lovely creature beloved of thy God without spot or blemish in soul or in body thou wert beautified and adorned with all graces and holy vertues reverenced and obeyed of all other creatures here upon earth and the celestiall orbs did cast no evill aspects upon thee but now thou art deformed with sin thou art polluted in all the faculties of thy soul and in all the parts of thy body for thou art spiritually blinde naked and void of all goodnesse thou art deaf and dumb to heavenly things thou art lame and impotent and canst not walk in the paths of righteousnesse also thou art so bent and bowed to the earth that thou canst not raise up thy heart toward heaven and so full of spirituall diseases and infirmities that there is no sound part in thee But this is thy comfort O my soul that the blood of thy crucified Redeemer which was spilt upon the crosse will take away all thy deformities of sin and will heal all thy spiritual diseases and his righteousnesse will make thee lovely in the sight of God If this be our condition by nature if we are thus deformed with the guilt of sin that cleaveth to our souls by our fall in Adam and if we have no meanes to regain our first happinesse in Adams first innocency but by Christ and to be cleansed from all our sins but by his blood then our chief care must be how to injoy Christ and how to have this great benefit by his blood If we are ingrafted into him by faith we shall injoy him in his whole nature as he is God and Man we shall partake with him in all his excellencies and graces he will work a new creation in us by his Spirit and a thorough change in all the faculties of our souls and in all the affections of our hearts that no sin shall cleave to our souls for our condemnation for he will also nail the the guilt of all our sins to his crosse upon which he shed his most precious blood to make an attonement for them all He will also take away the stains and filth of our sins by his sanctifying grace and holy Spirit and will put upon us the robe of his own righteousnesse which will cover all our deformities and will make us amiable and lovely in the sight of God By the merit of Christs blood our sins shall never be laid to our charge by the power of his death we are made able
Jewes and therefore he will not refuse us Lastly consider that Pilate did highly honour our Lord and Saviour Christ when he wrote this Title to be set over his head upon the Crosse r Jon 2â— 10. Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jewes which was a title of great honour and not of shame and disgrace unto him Their manner was to set up a superscription to shew the crimes why a malefactor was put to death but Pilate could find no crime and no fault in Christ and therefore he wrote this superscription to clear his innocencie and to brand the Jewes with perpetual ignominie and shame to all generations for their malice and cruelty against him For though Pilate did not believe that Christ was a King and though he was perswaded by the chief Priests and by the people to condemn him and to put him to death yet God would not suffer him to be perswaded by them to alter the Title but to have it written in Hebrew Greek and Latine that all Nations and Languages might know the honour of his Person and the horrible wickedness of the bloudy Jewes in killing their King whom God had appointed and sent to be their Saviour and Redeemer also to make their name odious to all people as a just judgement of God upon them because they refused the sweet tender of his grace and mercy and killed his dear and onely Son Christ was brought to the lowest degree of his humiliation and now God doth begin to glorifie him and to publish his honour and his great Name by the highest authority to all nations and people and to the perpetual infamy and reproach of all his enemies to all posterity This honour was his due and God would not suffer him to loose it and thus God will do for us also If we are made the scorn of men if we suffer persecution fire sword or famine in a good cause and if we die upon this crosse yet God will manifest the integrity of our hearts and will give us that honour which is due to us as his servants and his children for if we drink of Christs bitter cup of sorrows we shall also drink of his pleasant cup of joy and consolation Wherefore if thou wilt have the meditations of thy heart upon the passion of thy dear and gracious Redeemer to be comfortable and profitable to thy soul thou must not look upon him onely in that despicable condition as he is now upon the crosse to the outward eye but with the eye of faith thou must look upon him as he is the eternal Son of God God and man and as he is dignified with all his excellencies and titles of honour for he was a Prophet and such a Prophet as did endow all the former Prophets with the spirit of prophesie whose Prophesies did chiefly concern him Also he was a Priest after the highest order whose Priesthood was eternal according to this of the Psalmist Å¿ Psal 110. 4. The Lord sware and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck So likewise he was a spiritual King to rule his Church and in the hearts of all his elect and he did subdue all his enemies under him and he will also subdue all the enemies of his spiritual Kingdom in us If thou canst thus see the excellencies of Christ through his mean and contemptible condition and if thou canst believe that he is thy Redeemer and all-sufficient to be thy Saviour it will inflame the affections of thy heart with intire love to him because he hath humbled himself so low for thy sake it will make thee bend thine ear to his instructions for he will teach thee heavenly wisdom and how to walk in the paths of godlinesse he will also present thy prayers and all thy holy services to God his Father and then they shall be accepted and this will also work a reverential fear in thee to yeild all obedience to his commands If thou doest thus look upon Christ though he be upon the crosse it will give thee abundant comfort in thy sufferings exceeding much joy in the benefits which thou shalt have by his passion and it will stirre thee up to a thankful acknowledgement of his goodness and mercie to thee Now look upon thine own unworthiness and thou wilt admire the moâ—â— that Christ should so much humble himself to exalt thee that he should suffer so much smart pain and torment to free thee from everlasting torments and burnings in hell and that he should loose the comfort of his Deitie and the sense of his Fathers love to reconcile thee unto God and to make an attonement for thy sins Who were the Agents in the Passion of CHRIST VVE come now to consider what Agents there were in this doleful tragedie of our Saviour Christ how every one acted for his own ends how God did make the designes of the devil and of all his wicked instruments to work for his own glorie and how he did afterwards bring their wickedness upon their own heads The whole Passion of Christ and every circumstance of it was decreed from eternitie and the three Persons in the sacred Trinity were the first and principal Agents in this great work of Christs Passion for they decreed that Jesus Christ the second Person in the holy Trinitie should be sacrificed and made a propitiation for the sins of the world which was done at Gods appointed time For God the Father sent him into the world for this end and purpose and God the Son gave himself to be a ransome for us and assumed our nature that he might fulfil all righteousness and suffer the whole penalty of the Law for us also God the holie Ghost did give him all fulness of grace and power to bear the bitterness of his passion and thereby to conquer sin death hell and the devil and to give us power also over all the enemies of our salvation Though God was the principal Agent in the crucifying of Christ yet herein he had no evil intent or purpose and therefore he was without sin for he had a gracious and merciful end in it that his justice might be satisfied for the sin of man and that the redemption and salvation of all his elect might be wrought by the precious bloud and all sufficient sacrifice of his dear Son But the devil was the chief actor in the wickedness and crueltie of this sad tragedie whose end and design was to hinder our salvation by destroying our Saviour and this he did seek to bring to passe by wicked means and of malice to mankind and therefore as soon as he had his permission from God he raised up his wicked instruments for his hellish design First a John 13. 27. he entred into Judas and took possession there b Mat. 26. 25 16. who out of covetousness sold his Lord and Master to the chief Priests and Elders for thirtie pieces of silver
6â— Before I was afflicted saith he I went astray but now have I kept thy word Also he saith g Psal 23. 4 Thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me and then he concludes thus h Psal 94. 12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord. This exhortation the wise man giveth i Prov. 3. 11 12. My Son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither beweary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a Father the son in whom he delighteth k Heb. 12. 11. But no chastening for the present seemeth joyous but grievous neverthelesse afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse unto them which are exercised thereby Wherefore we must not measure the love of God by the outward blessings which we injoy nor his displeasure by the crosses which we suffer Consider now that none could ever claim greater priviledge from afflictions and sorrowes than the Virgin Mary and none was ever more to be honoured upon earth than she for she did bear Christ the only Son of the eternal God in her blessed womb who had the command of all creatures in heaven and in earth and who was the fountain of all true consolation and she injoyed the comfort of his sacred society many years and yet she had her cares she had her sorrowes her whole life was full of afflictions wants and necessities she was put to great extremities when Christ was born soon after she fled into Egypt for the safety of her Sons life she lost him three dayes at Jerusalem and at that time she sought him with a sorrowfull heart But above all behold and see how her soul is now pierced thorough with grief for she must now lose his gracious company for ever she now beholds him upon the Crosse she seeth how his tender body is rent and torn with the thornes and with the whip how his hands and feet are nailed to the Crosse as if he had been a notorious malefactor and she hears the revilings and blasphemies that were uttered against him in a most shameful spiteful manner which was enough to break her sorrowfull heart but especially she did see his very heart blood gush out of his side which was pierced with a spear This was the wofull and lamentable condition of the blessed Virgin at this time but Christ gave her inward comfort and strength of faith answerable to the greatnesse of her sorrowes which did uphold her heart from fainting and her soul from sinking This may be the condition of any of Gods servants they may be oppressed and pressed down with temporall miseries they may drink deep in the bitternesse of them but yet they are freed from the curse that was upon them and there is nothing in them to hurt their souls for that is taken away by these sufferings of Christ which makes the burden of them more easie that they may bear it with a willing minde When our afflictions are thus sanctified we shall find the fruit and benefit that comes thereby to be very sweet and profitable so that we shall have good cause to rejoice under them for as our sorrowes and sufferings do abound so also grace shall superabound l 2 Cor. 1. 5. and as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ Consider yet further that as the holy Virgin was continually exercised under the Crosse and had her share in common calamities so likewise she had her particular cares of want and scarcity for her condition of life was but mean and her livelihood was but small therefore she was now like to be left destitute of all comfort relief and succour But Christ her beloved Son takes care of her he provides as well for the maintainance of her body as for the comfort of her soul and commends her to John his beloved Disciple m John 19. 26 27. Woman saith he to his Mother behold thy Son and to John he said Behold thy Mother And from that hour John took her unto his own home and provided for her during her life Thus was the blessed Virgin trained up in the school of affliction and sorrow to keep her from spirituall pride though she were honoured and blessed above all other women and that her minde should not be drawen away after the pomp and vanitis of the world but still to bear Christ in her heart as sometimes she did bear him in her wombe It was also to free her from all earthly cares that the meditations of her heart might be alwayes heavenly and that the desire of her soul might be to be with Christ This care Christ will have to provide whatsoever is needfull for all those that belong unto him for he best knoweth what is good for us and he will not suffer us to want if we put our trust in him We need not carke and care for the transitory things of this life which are given to the wicked as well as to the godly We need not distrust the wise Providence of God but we may confidently rest upon Christ for he will support and comfort us in our tribulations and will provide for us in our wants and necessities troubles and sorrowes may come upon us losse of Parents Children or Friends will come and casualties may happen in our estate which we would neither foresee nor prevent these and the like will imbitter all the comfort and content that we can finde in this world but if we belong unto Christ we shall never lose him neither can any thing bereave us of the sweet consolation that we shall finde in him This we may believe to be true that our crosses and sufferings in this life may be better for us then to injoy all earthly pleasures and delights Moses refuseth to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter chosing rather to â— Heb. 11. 35 25 26. suffer affliction with the people of God than to injoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward o Heb. 12. 12 Then lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees Let not outward crosses or afflictions too much seaze upon thee but by faith have respect unto the recompence of the reward and raise up thy Meditations to Spirituall things set the affections of thy heart upon Christ and him crucified which will make thy life comfortable here and will bring thee to reign eternally with him hereafter Now we must learn how to draw true consolation to our souls from this eternal Fountain of comfort when outward calamities or anguish of spirit doth overpresse us Our worldly preferments our natural endowments humane learning or common grace cannot reach this Fountain the well is deep and nothing can reach it but true Faith which is the onely bucket to draw this water of comfort from Christ which will refresh
the sanctifying graces of his holy Spirit may season our hearts and affections to walk before him in holinesse and purenesse of living all our dayes Wherefore now our afflictions and troubles which are part of this curse are sanctified to us and made salubrious and wholesome for our good and the evill of punishment which we suffer is taken away by the merit of his sufferings and the nature of them is changed into fatherly chastisements to correct us for our sins that we may walk more obediently before God or else they are to try the truth of our graces for the honour of God that gave them Fourthly this is another great Advantage and Gain that we have by Christ which unregenerate men cannot finde that he hath also freed us from the dominion of sin for though sin will dwell with us so long as we live in the flesh yet the strength and power of sin is weakened and killed by the vertue and power of that grace which Christ hath given us by his death The best of Gods servants do often complain how the unregenerate part in them doth sometimes prevail against the Spirit which makes them groan under the burden of their corruptions as holy David and others have done Paul also found this to be true for thus he saith e Rom. 7. 18 19. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I finde not for the good that I would I do not but the evill which I would not that I do And he had no power but onely from Christ to be freed from this dominion of sin and therefore he cryeth out saying f Rom 7. 24 25. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord for he found this Benefit and Gain by Christ for saith he g Phil. 1. 21. To me to live is Christ and to dye is gain or else we may read it thus For Christ is to me both in life and in death advantage This is not the gain which natural men look for they seek after the gain of riches the gain of honours and the gain of worldly preferments they look not after spiritual gain they do not esteem of vertue and godliness piety towards God is out of request with them though it be the true gain and most to be desired Fifthly that we may get this spirituall gain of Godlinesse which is the advantage onely of a true Believer Christ doth wash us in the Laver of his righteousnesse and therefore he bestowes all sanctifying and saving graces upon us to purifie us from the silth and pollutions of our sins For Christ doth unite us unto himself by Faith whereby we are cloathed with his righteousnesse and have all the benefits that come by the merite of his blood then faith drawes in with it all other sanctifying graces to make us compleat and perfect in Christ to beautifie and adorn our souls that we may lead a vertuous and pious life in the right way of true holiness h 1 Pet. 2. 2 Christ doth also give us an holy desire to the sincere milk of the word that thereby we may grow in i 2 Pet. 3. 18. grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we are brought into the favour of God k Rom. 3. 24 by whose grace love we are freely justified through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ l Eph. 2. 8. by whose free grace also we are saved through faith in Christ Saving grace was one of the special gifts that Christ gave after his Ascension according to this of Paul m Eph. 4. 7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ n Heb. 13 9. Wherefore if our hearts are stablished w th grace we shal not be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines but we shall stand firm in the Faith and in the truth of our Profession and our hearts will be purged from dead works Sixthly we have this great Advantage by Christ above all other men o Gal. 4. 5 6 7. that by him we receive the adoption of sons and thereby we injoy all the Priviledges that belong to sons for God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father and we are made heirs of God through Christ Wherefore p Heb. 4. 16. in him we may come boldly unto the throne of grace by Prayer that we may obtain mercy and finde grace to help in time of need For God will have a fatherly care of us to protect us in all dangers to provide whatsoever is good for us and to comfort us in all our sorrowes and distresses q Psal 9. 9. Isa 25. 4. Thus was God a refuge and a shield of defence to David and to other holy men in their troubles and afflictions If his rod of correction be upon us it will be in love r Heb. 12. 6. as a father chasteneth his son that he may receive us as his sons and though we feel his visitation sharp Å¿ Lam. 3. 31 yet he will not cast us off for ever for t Eph. 4 30. we are sealed unto the day of Redemption u Heb. 6. 12. that we may through faith and patience inherit the promises u 1 Pet. 1 4. as heirs to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us Lastly Christ hath sealed the Covenant of grace to us with his own blood whereby we are freed from the strict keeping of the legal Covenant of Works and Christ will perfect with his own righteousnesse whatsoever is wanting in us to the fulfilling of the Law if we endeavour the best we can with an upright heart to do the will of God and then God in mercy will accept of our imperfect obedience for his sake This new Covenant which Christ hath procured for us will admit of the obedience of Christ for us and also of our true repentance for our sins which the legal Covenant would not because it required perfect and personal obedience to every tittle of the Law both in thought in word and in deed By vertue of this new Covenant x Jer. 31. 33 34. God is our God and he will forgive all our iniquities and will remember our sins no more upon condition that we believe in Christ y Heb. 12. 24. who is the Mediator of this Covenant and that with our faith we joyn piety and new obedience Christ hath also given us his Sacraments whereby this Covenant is sealed to us if we do worthily partake of them but of this Covenant and also of the Sacraments I have written more fully in another Treatise Now Meditate with an holy devotion upon all these Advantages which every
t Acts 3. 8. If the creeple whom Peter and John cured leaped and praised God then we have much more cause to praise and glorifie God with joyfull hearts because Christ hath cured us of our spirituall lamenesse and of all other spiritual infirmities Also u Mat. 27. 54. if the Centurion when he saw the earth-quake and what was done at Christs death glorified God saying Truly this was the Son of God then ought we to glorifie God for our regeneration and for our Spirituall life and to say Truly this was the work of the Son of God We may dayly see the wonderfull works of God which he doth for his own glory to give us dayly occasions to honour and glorifie him and therefore this should be our continual practise to magnifie the Name of God according to this of Paul u Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye ear or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of God It is the continual work of the Saints and Angels in heaven to sing Hosanna to the highest and it should be our constant care here upon earth to glorifie God and to magnifie him for all his benefits mercies and goodnesse to us Thus we may come to have an holy assurance that we have a spiritual life in Christ if we do truly believe that he hath redeemed us by the merit of his blood from all our iniquities and from all the issues of sin also that he hath sanctified us and made us an holy people to himself not to serve the world the flesh or the divel but to serve the living God with a clean heart and pure affections So likewise if we finde a new principle of grace planted in our hearts whereby we are able in some measure to walk in the paths of godlinesse and so to steer all our actions that they may tend to the honour and glory of God the Peace of our consciences and the eternal comfort of our souls How to injoy true Happinesse ALL men desire to be happy but few seek it where it is to be found some seek it in morall vertues and natural endowments some in morall vertues and natural endowments some in worldly pleasures and profits others think to finde it in riches and honours but all come far short of the glory of true happinesse though they do obtain their desire in all earthly things for all that this world doth afford cannot make a man truly happy so much as in this life much lesse can it procure his happinesse in the life to come for there will still be something wanting or else something to imbitter their contentment in these things here below If we have honour or authority to day we may be in ignominy and disgrace to morrow if we have riches and plenty to day we may be exposed to want and penury to morrow sicknesse or pain will blast all our earthly contentments but when death comes it will bereave us of them all It is in vain therefore to seek our happinesse in these vain things or to put our confidence in them for our felicity doth not consist in uncertain riches or in transitory honours and pleasures which in themselves are nothing else but vanity and vexation of spirit But true happinesse is from above and it consisteth in the sweet fruition of God this happinesse we had in the state of innocency but we lost it by the fall of our first Parents and we have no means to recover it but onely by Christ Jesus our blessed Redeemer Wherefore a Rom. 8. 32. God took pity on our miserable condition and of his infinite mercy and love hath not spared his own Son but delivered him up for us all to work our redemption by his death and passion and to bring us again into the favour of God And as John saith b Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life so that we cannot have this true blessednesse but onely by Christ which is every where set forth in this Treatise Thus doth the boundlesse mercy and unlimited goodnesse of God appear in offering his dear Son to all that will come and imbrace him but some cannot come because they live not where the Gospel of Christ is preached which doth reveal him and must instruct them in the right way how to finde him some will not come but make excuses c Lu. 14. 1â— 19. like those in the Gospel that were bidden to the great Supper for they are hindered by their worldly occasions others are wholly taken up with carnall delights and pleasures which keeps them from coming to Christ though they may injoy this true happinesse by him Consider now that riches honours and lawful pleasures are not in themselves simply evill for they are Gods good creatures and his blessings neither do they keep us from coming unto Christ but we may injoy Christ together with them if we do not immoderately covet them and use no unjust means to get them or put our trust and confidence in them to derogate from the honour of God If we injoy Christ with them he will sanctifie them to us for our comfort and will make them the first fruits of our happinesse whereby we may glorifie God and do much good to our neighbour otherwise they are but the shadow of happinesse and not the true substance of it which in the end will be bitternesse when we must give a strict account unto God how we have used them Many a poor man that injoyeth Christ is more happy in his poverty than they that abound in wealth and honour if they are without Christ for they injoy a contented minde peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost and they have an holy assurance that their joy and happinesse shall be made perfect in the life to come Wherefore he that hath Christ hath the Fountain of all true happiness and some streams thereof will flow to him even in this life But this is true which Christ saith d Joh. 6. 44 No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and we can have no part in Christ nor happinesse by him except we do truly believe in him This is the way that God himself hath taught us Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life Also this is the same way which Christ taught his Disciples e Joh. 14. 1 Yee believe in God believe also in me Our faith must be as firm as strong and as well grounded upon Christ as he is our Redeemer God and Man as it is upon God alone or else we cannot injoy him and all that happinesse which floweth from him Though we dare not approach neer unto God in regard of his divine justice yet through the mediation of Christ our gracious Redeemer we may have free accesse unto our God and we shall find him sitting
can they hate any thing that is wicked and sinfull because it is so agreeable to their nature and they have no grace to check their corrupted nature for loving that which God hateth and hath forbidden whereas a regenerate man will find that the Spirit of grace which is in him will give him a secret check if his unregenerate part doth take pleasure and delight in any thing that is sinfull for he must not conform himself to the fashion of the world The sense of faith may be lost BY faith in Christ we injoy the light of Gods countenance and his assisting Grace which is our greatest comfort in all misery and distresse and so long as we do injoy that we are sensible of our faith and we feel the comfort of it but when God doth hide his face from us and withdraw his assisting grace it is the greatest trouble that can betide us it takes away the comfort of faith from our soules and leaves us in a sad and sorrowfull condition in our apprehension because the support of our Faith is clouded from us God doth sometimes withdraw himself from his dear servants and doth suffer them to loose the sense of their Faith for a time to make them prize it the more and to be the more careful of it this God will also do by laying his rod of correction heavy upon us if he seeth that we watch not carefully over our Faith that we are carelesse in the use and exercise of it that we sleep in security or lye dead in our sins without repentance or if we abuse his love and goodnesse to us for then he will leave us to our selves to let us see our own weaknesse without his assisting grace Upon these and the like occasions the devill will be ready to take his advantage to assault us with his temptations to make us doubt of the love and favour of God when afflictions presse sore upon us also to aggravate our sins or else to hide them out of our sight as he did David's sin of adultery if by any means he can to keep us in unbelief or without repentance that we may not recover the sense and comfort of our Faith for his main drift is at last to drive us into despair It is a cunning policy of the devil and full of danger if he can keep us from the sight and sense of our sins that we should not confesse them and lay them open before God with a truly humbled penitent heart that so by ouâ— repentance we may have an holy assurance of the paâ—don of them For then wil our Faith break forth as thâ— Sun out of a cloud to warm and refresh our souls with spirituall consolation for we cannot lose the habit of Faith though the sense of it may be taken from us for a time Sometimes God himself will sift and winnow us as wheat to cleanse us from our chaffe to keep us from spiritual pride and to humble us for our sins Thus he sifted the house of Israel as he saith by his Prophet a Amâ—s 9 9 For lo I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among the nations like as corn is sifted in a five yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth Though God doth sometimes deal thus rigorously with us and doth leave us no hope to support our Faith yet not the least grain of his corn shall fall upon the earth but our Faith shall recover her strength again It is onely sin that makes a separation between God and us according to this of the Prophet b Isai 59. 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear c Cant. 5. It was sin that caused Christ withdraw himself from his Spouse because she would not open to him when he knocked but when he was gone and past she was in a wofull and comfortlesse condition Nothing can so much afflict us as the losse of our heavenly Fathers love and nothing can shake our Faith so much as when our souls are perplexed because in our own apprehension God is either become our enemy or else he hath quite forsaken us How did Job complain in his great afflictions d Job 30. 27 28. My bowels boiled and rested not I went mourning without the Sun My skin is black upon me and my bones are burnt with heat my harp also is turned to mourning and my Organ into the voice of them that weep Holy Davids Faith was brought to so low a degree by the sense of the burden of his sin and by the apprehension of the displeasure of God for it that he cryed to the Lord saying e Psal 38. 4 6 21 23. Forsake me not O Lord O my God be not far from me make haste to help me O Lord my salvation And again he thus cryeth unto God in the bitternesse of his soul f Psal 143. Hear me speedily O Lord my spirit faileth hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit g Psal 13. â— 2. How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy face from me How long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart dayly How long shall mine enemies be exalted over me Surely David had at this time little or noâ— sense of Faith to trust and depend upon God These and the like are the dolefull complaints of Gods children when they are overwhelmed with sorrowes or feel any spiritual desertions in so much as they cannot receive comfort until the holy Ghost who is the true Comforter doth give them some assurance of the grace and favour of God Wherefore it is evident that our Faith may be so strongly assaulted with sorrows and grief of heart that we are not able to hold out but are ready to sink under the pressure of our misery because it will take away the sense of our faith which must uphold us but specially when the guilt of sin lyeth upon the conscience for that will bring us to such an apprehension of a spiritual desertion that we can feel no comfort in God for the time for it will stop the current of all true consolation to our afflicted spirits which we cannot have but by Faith in Christ and nothing will take impression in us to comfort us so long as we are under the guilt of sin but these or the like uncomfortable complaints will be ready to be uttered that God hath quite forsaken us that there is no hope for us in Christ and we cannot believe that there is any salvation for us because our sins are so many and so grievous If we are thus afflicted and perplexed in mind that feares and doubtings of salvation trouble us because our Faith is so weak that we cannot discern it this will give us great satisfaction and
The Lord knoweth them that are his The second reason is drawn from the vertue and strength of the Covenant of Grace A Covenant between man and man is an ingagement of great force and the servants of God did alwayes exactly keep it how strong then is that Covenant which God himself hath made with us which his own dear Son hath sealed with his bloud and which God hath made of his own free grace and favour to us poor miserable sinners which Christ hath procured for us h Gâ—â— 9. God made a Covenant with Noah and he hath kept it to this day Also God made diverse Covenants with Abraham and he performed them all i Gen. 21 Abraham made a Covenant with Abimelech and did precisely keep it This new Covenant is for ever and it is so strongly confirmed that we cannot question the performance of it on Gods part whom in his own Esence is immutable and unchangeable and though we cannot perform our conditions to God yet Christ hath performed them for us and will also stablish us in the fear of God that we shall never depart from him Thus saith the Lord by his Prophet k Jer. 33 34. I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them even unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I wil forgive their iniquity and will remember their sin no more And again thus saith the Lord l Jer. 32. 40 And I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Wherefore seeing we have this Covenant of grace from God and thus confirmed with the seal of Christs bloud we may rest confident that if we are ingrafted into Christ by a true and lively Faith we are then invested into this New Covenant and every condition and Promise therein contained shall be performed to the uttermost which doth give us an holy assurance that we shall never totally and finally fall away from God The third Reason for the stability of the Faithfull is grounded upon the power of God for as Peter saith m 1 Pet. 1. 5. We are kept by the power of God through Faith unto salvation The Lord Jehovah is our keeper the Lord is our defence all power is from him and no created power can take us out of his hand Christ is also our good Shepherd and we are his sheep though we go astray and wander out of the way in the Wildernesse of this world yet Christ will not loose us but will seeâ— us up and bring us again unto his fold n John 10. 28 29. Christ knoweth his sheep and will give unto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck thâ—m out of his hand My father saith he which gave them me is greater then all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand Wherefore if there be any confidence to be put in the Almighty power of God if any trust in the care of Christ over his flock or any truth in his promises to his sheep we need not doubt of our perseveâ—ance in grace and in the truth we need not fear the malice the cunning or the power of the Devil that he can overthrow our Faith or destroy the habit of it that is planted in our hearts by the holy Ghost Fourthly the stability of our Faith is firmly grounded upon the faithfulnesse of God according to this of Paul o 1 Thess 5. 23 24. And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Faithfull is he that calleth you who also will do it Also thus he saith p 1 Cor. 1. 8 9. God shall also confirm you unto the end that ye may he blamelesse in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ God is faithfull by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus saith Moses to the children of Israel q Deut 7. 9. Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithfull God which keepeth Covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandements to a thousand generations Holy David had great experience of Gods faithfulnesse to him and therefore he saith r Psal 36 5. that the faithfulnesse of God reacheth to the clouds And again he saith Å¿ Psal 119. 90. Thy faithfulnesse is unto all generations thou hast established the earth and it abideth We may therefore rest upon the faithfulnesse of God as well as upon his power for the keeping of his Covenant for the performing of his Promises for his aid and assisting grace in all our temptations t 1 Cor. 10. 13. for God is faithfull who will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able but will with the temptation also make away to escape that we may be able to bear it Also in all our afflictions miseries and calamities that we suffer in a good Cause God will keep and preserve our souls from hurt and therefore thus saith Peter u 1 Pet 4. 19 Let thâ—m that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour Thus saith the Lord unto his People u Hos 2. 19 20. I will betroth thee unto me forever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulnâ—sse and thou shalt know the Lord. If we are thus betrothed unto God in faithfulnesse in judgement and in righteousnesse then we cannot be quite separated from him and our Faith in Christ which is the instrument of our betrothing cannot be quite lost The fifth reason why the Faithfull cannot finally fall away from God is taken from the love of God x John 13. â— for those whom he loveth God loveth to the end Love is essentiall in God and he can as well deny his own Being as deny his love to those that are united unto Christ by Faith and his love to them endureth for ever y Rom. 8 39 For noâ—hing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus saith John the beloved Disciple of Christ z 1 John 4. 10 16. Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Again he saith thus And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us God is love and he
10. then they were sore afraid and cryed out to the Lord. And Moses said unto the people Fear ye not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he will shew to you to day Then the Lord made a way for them through the sea and saved them from their enemies but the sea drowned all the host of the Egyptians that pursued after them The Prophet Gad came to David and told him the Word of the Lord b Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land or wilt thou flee three moneths before thine enemies while they pursue thee or that there be three dayes pestilence in thy land This put David into a great strait but he cast himself upon the mercies of God and did choose to fall into the hand of the Lord and not into the hand of man for he knew that his mercies were great c â—hil 1. 23 24. Paul was in the like strait for he knew not whether to choose to live which was more needfull to the Philippians or to dye which was far better for himself Sometimes God suffers the devill and wicked men to lay their traps to ensnare his own servants if he seeth them secure and carelesse of their wayes and though they do maliciously intend and purpose their hurt and d 1 Cor. 10. 10 13. destruction yet God by his wise providence will make a way for them to escape the danger of them all that he may magnifie his own glory thereby Sometimes also God doth suffer his servants to be pinched with want and scarcity to be long under afflictions and under the crosse and for some ends best known to his Divine wisdome he doth long defer to manifest his Providence to them for their succour and comfort which is a very great tryall of their faith hope and dependence upon God and many of Gods dear children have complained that he did not help and relieve them and that he suffered his enemies so long to triumph over them Thus saith the Psalmist e Psal 94. 3 Lord how long shall the wicked how long shall the wicked triumph Thus David complaineth f Psal 42. 9 I will say unto God my rock Why hast thou forsaken me Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy Also thus Asaph complained when he was in great distresse g Psal 77. 7 7 8 9 10. Will the Lord cast off for ever And will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever ever doth his promise fail for evermore hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies And then he doth confesse that it was his infirmity to question the good Providence of God But some do repine and murmur against God and against his wise Providence through unbelief if they have not their wants necessities supplied at their pleasure and if they have not deliverance out of their troubles and tribulations when they expect it These are ready to say with Jehoram that wicked king h 2 Kin. 6. 33. Behold this evill is of the Lord what should I wait on him any longer Holy David doth expresse in diverse of his Psalmes how he waited for the Lord from day to day how he rested on the Lord and how patiently his soul waited for him If we thus wait upon God i Isa 30. 18 then the Lord will wait that he may be gracious unto us and therefore we ought to wait for him But if our Faith in God can reach no further than humane sense or reason can carry it we dishonour God by our unbelief though we have formerly had great experience of his good Providence to us and we shall provoke him to wrath as the Israelites did in the wildernesse when they said k Psal 78. 19 20. Can God furnish a Table in the wildernesse Behold he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams over flowed can he give bread also can he provide flesh for his people Thus they believed not in God and rested not upon his Providence though they had seen so many of his great wonders which he had wrought for them Wherefore now let this be the desire of our hearts and souls l Eph. 3. 17 that our faith may be rooted and grounded in the love of God to us in Christ who with him hath given us all things The glorious creatures in heaven are comfortable to us by our interest in Christ and all creatures here below are for our use and at our command and service because we have right to them by faith in Christ without which we can have no comfort in them and no assurance that they belong unto us If our faith be well rooted it will then be fruitfull in all good works and it will never decay because it doth spring from a Divine Principle and is continually watered with a spirituall dew from heaven Also there is great need that it be well grounded and built upon a sure rock because we shall meet with strong assaults and temptations which like boysterous windes and billowes will seek to overturn it and we cannot comfortably injoy the good creatures of God if we do not injoy them in Christ our Saviour which must be onely by faith in him God himself will sometimes try our faith to the utmost by afflictions and crosses by suffering our enemies and wicked men to vex our very souls or by withdrawing his assisting grace from us by clouding the light of his countenance or by deferring the manifestation of his Divine Providence when we are in any strait or in any necessity which we could not shun and cannot tell which way to turn our selves because we have no means of help comfort and salvation but onely to cast our selves upon the Providence of God which we cannot comfortably do if our faith be not well grounded in Christ the rock of our salvation For if it be grounded upon any sandy foundation as upon our naturall endowments upon common grace or upon any earthly thing it will fall at every gust of temptation at every wave of affliction and it will not endure the fiery tryall it doth rest more upon the arm of flesh than it doth upon God and it seeks rather to secondary means for help and succour than it doth unto God and in the end it will deceive us In the last place God is wonderfull in his works of justice and in his Works of mercy both to the just and and to the unjust but in a farre differing manner to them both and to a farre-differing end For God will not suffer sin to be unpunished wheresoever he findeth it If his own children offend he will chastise them with a fatherly correction in much love and tender compassion and to bring them to better obedience but his loving kindnesse he will not take from them according as he said to David m 2 Sam. 7. 14 15. If thy